The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1887-02-24
Moral and Legal Marriage.

u now the CnlcaRO puDllc is DuSy
with ~meditations, debates and horror
yer marriages come and coming
The elopement of n young girl and hel
marriage at midn'g ht to the boy or lad
of her choice, moved not a little the
Utmost soul of a few hundred thou.
sand persons who reside in Cook Coun.
ty; but this commotion was a calm in
ompar with the tumult caused by
the illusion which came suddenly over
the mind of a rather noble girl. an
illusion which assumed the form of a
archists now in the County Jail under
a death-sentence.
The latter case has aroused an indig-
nation as broad as the normal condition
Of the local mind, the reverend gentle
man continues. in the Chicago Journal,
and has awakened an approval as
large as the admiring circle around
Captain Black and his incarcerated
clients. With that small number OF
persons to whom the murder of eight
policemen and the wound NC oil
twenty more was a venial matter, this
wedding between a young girl and the
leading agent in the bloody riot is also
rather a nice thing. The women and
men who had sympathy and flowers
for the May rioters ought to bring plen-
ty of blossoms for the January we'd
ding. There was no.great wrong in
the death of the policemen, and much
less wrong would there be in the jail
wedding. So argues the Captain
Black coterie of mortals-a coterie
whose code of ethics is perhaps the
most original ever fabricated outside
of an insane asylum. which, beginning
in the espousal of anarchy as a viz
tue, eliminates in asking a beautiful
girl to marry, it being a pity for such a
social flower to waste its sweetness On
the desert air.
1t was q wonderful Kindness of heav-
en- to grant to the same city which per-
mitted Captain Black to live and in
culcate etithics, Sheriff Matsoa also to
live to prevent the Black idea from be-
coming epidemic. What would become
of us if to his tasks like a lawyer Cap
tain Black were given liberty to cav
marriages between the anarchists in
Jail and the foolish girls out of it? The
sheriff has come in IS a most timely re-
buke to one of the greatest absurdities
of the age. A man of good sense has
risen up to quite a bedlam.
1t did seem for a time as though the
marriage being conceded as coming,
some Clergyman would be found to
take his sacred robes in a carpet-sack,
and, DOMINIC them in the jail, make
two loving hearts to beat as one. In
the recent runaway match clergyman
was found who would rise at midnight,
and for a consideration, rattle over
some holy words, and thus place his Of
flee on a Level with a village squire.
That this same clergyman could have
been secured for our Jail wedding there
is no reasonable doubt, for, with him,
as with many other preachers, MARI
age has lost its religious element, and,
like a business partnership, is a mere
matter of law. This is aStrange phe-
nomenon in the Episcopal Church, be-
| cause a church which is so careful
about how 4 marriage bond shall be
dissolved should reveal some preference
as to how it should be created. Ii mid
| might and sol tude and girlish green
ness make Il good beginning, the man
aer of ending should be of little inspor-
lance.
But the Spies naptials. now only
prospective, reveal the ridiculous pass
tC which marriage has come by help of
Both law and the gospel. Tho clergy
have helped to degrade the altar.
Some Of our singers and actresses dave
been MARI ed three OR four or five times
the words IT'LL death us do part
having nothing to do with the pant NO.
A silly man and woman can get mar
ried in a shop window. or up i'll a
balloon. and at any time of night or
day. Three or four dollars. or a,aoliar
and a half eFens will sufficiently be-
cloud the moral sense OF parson or
squire. and on goes the wedding with
~neatness and dispatch. Que age now
completes its hideous work by asking
us to admire tie orange blossoms which
a good grl proposes to wear ia the
County Jail for afew moments. The
daily papers have done noble duty by
expressing, instead of admiration. their
indignation at all concerned in the.
affair, and especially toward those who.
are old enough to possess some of the.
admonitions of common sense.
This little paper was begun with the.
design of suggesting that the clergy
should never take partin any elzndes-
tine or eccentric marriage. The cler-
gyman's rite is not the legal rte. His
wedding possesses a religious element.
and if silly people run to him to be
married, they should be sen onward
toward some magistrate. Some Of the
Chicago pastors have done this again
and again. They have said to runa-
ways and eccentrics: 1--WE cannot
perform a legal ceremony; our eere-
mony must be both NOR al and legal,
and the marriage you seek contains no
religious element whatever" In
these DAYS of degraded marriage they
are no doubt glad that what ceremonies
they have performed have been solemn
lied amid benedictions and flowers
worthily placed. If there must be for
lorn and wretched weddings. let the
common squire have the honor and the
glittering fee, but let the clergy step